Henry Luce Analysis

Henry Wallace and Henry Luce foresaw ambitious futures for both the United States and the entire world following the eventual end of World War II. Each man wrote of global economic, political, and spiritual progression through American intervention. Luce argued that America should realize she is finally a dominant world power and exert her values and ideals on foreign nations in order to create a successful worldly future. Wallace instead insisted that the only way for the whole world to flourish was to guide developing countries towards creating an industrialized nation of their own. Both men attempted to genuinely craft a future that benefited all, but their disagreement lies in where we draw the limit of American influence in other countries. …show more content…
His father believed “it was their calling to save China through a combination of Christianity, modern science, democracy, and the sorts of freedoms enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.” Throughout Luce’s life, he was among people who thought the same as his father, and after studying in America and England - as well as training for war in Europe - Luce took on a view that America must become an active leader in world affairs. He later launched multiple publications, including Life, where he published “The American Century.” In this article, Luce details a future in which America takes rightful control as the dominant world power in the twentieth century. Luce begins the writing by advocating for our involvement in the European war. He writes “…We also know that the sickness of the world is also our sickness. We, too, have miserably failed to solve the problems of our epoch.” Britain is at a point in the war where no other priority triumphs over mere survival. On the other hand, America has the opportunity to make decisions that will impact the rest of …show more content…
It is a “baffling, difficult, paradoxical,” and revolutionary century. He asserts that we must go out and solve the problems of the world in order to ensure America’s constitutional democracy for the next hundred years. Luce also writes that it is an American promise to provide “adequate production for all mankind.” The internationalism that he describes must be unique in that it is one “of the people, by the people and for the people,” and one that shows an American prestige of faith in the good intentions of all individual people. Luce lastly describes four specific areas where America would take control of the world’s affairs. He writes we must dominate economies by controlling the seas of world trade, produce skilled technical and artistic persons that will go out and influence the world, become the “Good Samaritan of the entire world” and feed all the hungry, and include a passionate devotion to great American ideals. Luce concludes the paper by stating, “…this nation, conceived in adventure and dedicated to the progress of man – this nation cannot truly endure unless there courses strongly through its veins from Main to California the blood of purposes and enterprise and high resolve… to create the first great American